NEW YORKERS & CO.

NEW YORKERS & CO.; Margaritas at 10 A.M.: City Kids on Break Pick New Party Spots

By COREY KILGANNON

Published: March 28, 1999

DAVID KWON, a Columbia College senior on his first spring-break vacation, recently wound up with seven classmates in Senor Frog's, a bar in the hotel district of Cancun, Mexico.

An all-you-can-drink special had the place packed with college students. But the watered-down margaritas and yardlong beakers of drinks were slow in achieving their full desired effect. But then, it was early -- 10 A.M. to be exact -- and several hours before a wet T-shirt contest at the Oasis Hotel would become a no T-shirt contest.

''The place was a big frat party,'' Mr. Kwon said. ''You look around and say, 'O.K., this must be Cancun.' At first, you're like, 'Whoa,' but you get used to it real quick.''

Mr. Kwon, responding to an advertisement in the school newspaper, had purchased a $650 package that included air fare and a weeklong hotel stay. His parents paid.

During the weeks leading up to Easter, many students like Mr. Kwon trade in their day planners for daiquiris on some resort's sandy shores. But the exodus from stuffy classrooms also means crunch time for the travel agencies and tour operators who specialize in these trips. The businesses have also had to evolve in recent years, they say, as favored destinations have changed and as some New York spring breakers have become more sophisticated and less cost-conscious.

Spring-break season kicks off in January, when travel businesses place their ads in college newspapers and plaster campus walls with fliers showing beautiful people sipping tropical drinks on tropical beaches. Student response can create bedlam to rival Senor Frog's.

''Since January, the phone hasn't stopped ringing,'' said Milagros Gutierrez, an office supervisor for Council Travel, one such business. ''They got their head in a book all semester, and then all of a sudden they want to go on vacation. We can't even breathe around here until after Easter.''

Council Travel distributes fliers advertising discounted spring-break packages to 15 college campuses in the city. But don't look for a mention of Fort Lauderdale or Daytona Beach. The ads focus on Cancun, which for several years, with its huge, sleek hotels and theme bars, has been the premier resort nationwide for spring break.

In the 1980's, spring break meant mass migrations of party animals to Florida spots. But alcohol poisoning and trashed hotel rooms were often de rigueur, so local authorities began cracking down on underage drinking.

As a result, tour operators began organizing charters offering discount packages to Cancun. They also peddled trips to various Caribbean resorts, where a kinder, gentler set of students, lured by inexpensive drinks and a rarely enforced drinking age of 18, began seeking antidotes to civilization.

With more destination options, students became more sophisticated voyagers, often researching travel deals on the Internet and booking trips as early as school registration in September.

Many students from the West Coast flock to Mexican sites like Mazatlan and Acapulco. South Padre Island, Tex., is popular with the Southern and Midwestern contingent, some of whom still motor down to Daytona Beach.

Many New York City students, like Mr. Kwon and his friends, do go to Cancun, but many others avoid such frenetic vacation spots, said Duane Holt, a group sales manager for Student Travel Services, a national tour operator. Among the more mellow favorites for New Yorkers are the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, particularly Negril and Montego Bay.

Mr. Holt said he had booked twice as many trips to Jamaica this year as last; his theory is that many New York students are disenchanted with swim-up bars and wet T-shirt contests promoted by liquor companies. Referring to a group of 100 Stuyvesant High School students he recently booked to Jamaica, he said, ''They want a change in life style, just kick back and listen to some reggae and get away from the hustle bustle of the city.''

Those New Yorkers who do venture, at least once, to Cancun often insist on more upscale hotels, said Elizabeth McKenna, who owns Empress Travel, an owner-managed chain agency on West Fourth Street near New York University.

''New York kids are a little more sophisticated, a little more savvy,'' said Ms. McKenna. But, she added, even New Yorkers don't exactly expect four-star treatment; after all, weeklong spring-break packages start at only $400.

''A room's a room's a room,'' she said. ''They could care less where they crash. The deciding factor is always going to be the lowest price and best party.''

Mark Wolov, a travel adviser at the Student Travel Agency, a national company, said such persistent spring-break themes may explain an odd pattern. ''Students can go to Europe for as cheap as the Caribbean,'' he said. ''But most of them want a beach with a lot of girls or guys and alcohol.''

The biggest bargains sometimes backfire. Since tour operators usually buy seats on chartered flights and make hotel arrangements through a land operator in the destination country, travel complications can occur frequently.

Nightmare stories include students stranded in airports or rerouted to other cities. Students also complain of signing on for such disappointing options as booze cruises, inferior meal plans and free admission to seedy bars.

But some New Yorkers may avoid these troubles simply because they spend more. ''New York students tend to know exactly what they want and usually take the higher priced hotels,'' Mr. Holt said.

Joy Kauffman, a saleswoman for Vacation Doctor, a New York-based discounter of travel packages, agreed. ''Either students have more disposable income or Mom and Dad are paying,'' she said. ''I'm amazed at the money they're able to shell out.''

Mr. Wolov concurred as well, but stressed that basically spring break is still spring break.

''It's hard to separate spring breakers between high- and lowbrow,'' he said. ''It's all pretty much lowbrow. The people going to Cancun are not going for fulfillment.''

''MARCH MADNESS -- Where the Boys, and Girls, Are Going'': Spring break no longer means driving down to Fort Lauderdale. Students from New York City and elsewhere in the Northeast now favor these destinations:

CANCUN, MEXICO -- The No. 1 party place over all. Even jaded city students aren't above sloshing into theme bars offering all-you-can-drink specials.

JAMAICA -- Slower paced, with a moderate nightclub scene and mellow bars on the beach.

BAHAMAS -- Attracts more mature revelers who enjoy serenity with their daquiris.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC -- Resorts like Punta Cana and Boca Chica have become promin- ent student destinations, especially for Hispanic students, who also favor South Beach in Florida.

Photos: Spring break 1960: Jim Hutton in ''Where the Boys Are,'' at left and seated below right with Dolores Hart, George Hamilton and Paula Prentiss. (Photographs from Photofest)